The Justice Department is expected to file an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation on Thursday

A Justice Department lawsuit against Live Nation for violating U.S. antitrust laws is imminent and could be filed as early as Thursday (May 23), says a source with knowledge of the Justice Department’s plans Billboard.

There are rumors that the lawsuit alleges that Live Nation has a monopoly on event ticket sales through Ticketmaster and illegally uses its monopoly position to expand its business and suppress competition. The Justice Department has been investigating Live Nation for more than two years. The investigation is now complete, company president Joe Berchtold recently said he hoped his company would avoid a legal crackdown with the Justice Department’s top antitrust lawyer, Jonathan Kanter.

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“These are always serious discussions. We wouldn’t have gotten to this point if they hadn’t had concerns, but the good news is we’re still talking and they’ve said they have an open mind,” Berchtold told attendees at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference in Boston on Tuesday (May 21 ).

“Without going into the real details of the conversation, I think it’s safe to say that I still believe that we fundamentally have business practices that are completely defensible,” Berchtold added, before continuing: “We’re also open to finding common ground to get this done.” sort it out and move on. But at this point we don’t know exactly what they want. “

Live Nation declined to comment for this story.

The Justice Department’s case is believed to center on Ticketmaster’s use of exclusive ticketing agreements when registering venues to use its ticketing services. Typically, Ticketmaster pays venues an advance on revenue generated from fees charged to consumers as part of the ticket purchasing process. The longer the contract, the larger the advance Ticketmaster can pay.

Justice Department officials dislike this practice, arguing that it prevents new companies from competing in the ticket sales market. However, Ticketmaster officials say they are open to working with non-exclusive contracts – both the Greek Theater in Hollywood and the Red Rocks in Denver are open venues where promoters use the services of a ticket provider of their choice – but venues often rely on exclusive contracts to meet their capital needs.

Although Ticketmaster has more exclusive ticketing agreements than any other company, it is not the only company that uses them: every major competitor pays advance payments in exchange for exclusive ticketing agreements with sports venues and teams.

This includes SeatGeek, which reportedly paid $10 million in 2021 for exclusive ticket rights to events at Barclays Center in Brooklyn for seven years. Two years after signing the contract, Billboard the directors of Barclays Center and BSE Global reported at the time Sam Zussman threatened to publicize SeatGeek’s technical problems and contract violations if it did not agree to terminate the contract immediately.

SeatGeek ultimately agreed to end its relationship with Barclays Center and was replaced by Ticketmaster. Justice Department officials reportedly investigated the incident thoroughly during their investigation into Live Nation.

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